Douglas Schoen

From the biography for Douglas Schoen on Penn, Schoen & Berland's website:

Douglas E. Schoen is a founding partner and a principal strategist of Penn, Schoen & Berland. He was named "Pollster of the Year" in 1996 by the American Association of Political Consultants for his work in the Clinton campaign.

He was President William Jefferson Clinton's research and strategic consultant during the 1996 reelection, and has been widely credited with creating and effectively communicating the message that turned around the President's political fortunes between 1994 and 1996.

For more than twenty years Dr. Schoen has created winning messages and provided strategic advice to numerous political clients in the United States and to heads of state in countries around the world, including Greece, Turkey, Israel, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Yugoslavia.

Political clients in the United States include: Idaho Governor, Cecil Andrus; Indiana Governor, Evan Bayh; Kentucky Governor, Paul Patton; Nevada Governor, Bob Miller; Louisiana Senator, John Breaux; New York Senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan; and West Virginia Senator, John D. Rockefeller.

Dr. Schoen has also provided preeminent strategic research to an extensive list of corporate clients, including Procter & Gamble, Major League Baseball, AT&T, Frito Lay, and Citibank.

Dr. Schoen has published a book on British politics, Enoch Powell and the Powellites, as well as a biography of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Pat: A Biography of Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In 2009, Schoen and Michael Rowan published The Threat Closer to Home: Hugo Chavez and the War Against America.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, and a graduate of Harvard Law School, Dr. Schoen has his doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University in England.

An earlier biographical note states that Schoen "wrote his honours thesis on New York City politics ... At Penn + Schoen Associates, Dr. Schoen has been primarily responsible for clients such as Mayor Ed Koch of New York City, the New York Stock Exchange, Control Data Corporation, General Foods, and Proctor and Gamble."


 * Senior Advisor, International Crisis Group

Tobacco industry documents
In 1989, Penn & Schoen sent a proposal to conduct focus group testing to help organize smokers' rights groups in predominantly black and hispanic areas of New York to Elizabeth Veanus, a New York state resident who worked as an outside consultant to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company. The proposal states that "Dr. Schoen has been primarily responsible for such clients as Mayor Ed Koch of New York City, the New York Stock Exchange, Control Data Corporation, General Foods, and Proctor and Gamble." It also stated that "Our goal in conducting these focus groups is identical to your goal in entering Harlem: to get smokers' rights groups up and running with utmost speed and effectiveness."

A 1994 market research proposal prepared for Philip Morris reveals that Penn & Schoen proposed performing "research" for PM designed to bolster implementation of PM's Accommodation Program, PM's national program to stave off legislated smoking bans by promoting smoking areas. Penn & Schoen proposed performing "credible opinion research" including conducting opnion polls with results that would reinforce claims that smoking restrictions result in lost jobs and income. Penn & Schoen also proposed helping portray efforts to eliminate public smoking as "pleasure revenge" by the state. The document states,

Direct Role of Dr. Schoen:  Dr. Schoen is an Oxford-trained political sociologist. His direct role in the design of each part of this project, as well as his previous National Consumer League experience, underscores our unique ability to provide strategic research to the Accommodations Program in particular, and to Philip Morris...in general.

SourceWatch Resources

 * Public polling industry
 * Tobacco industry

External Sources

 * Press Release WPP Group PLC WPP acquires leading US strategic research and polling consultancy, Penn, Schoen and Berland, November 16, 2001.